Microfluidics is revolutionizing the way activities are performed in a substantial proportion of chemical and physical operations. One area of microfluidics is the manipulation of small volumes of liquids or liquid compositions on a solid substrate, where a network of channels and reservoirs are present. By employing electric fields with electrically conducting liquids, volumes and/or ions can be moved from one site to another, different solutions formed by mixing liquids and/or ions, reactions performed, separations performed, and analyses carried out. In fact, in common parlance, the system has been referred to as “a laboratory on a chip.” Various prior art devices of this type include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,010,608, 6,010,607, 6,001,229, 5,858,195, and 5,858,187 which are a family of applications concerned with injection of sample solutions. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,432, EPA 0620432, and Verheggen et al., J. of Chromatography 452 (1988) 615-622.
In many of the operations, there is an interest in electrophoretically separating multiple sample components contained in dilute samples, e.g., samples with concentrations of sample components in the femptomolar to nanomolar range. Efficient electrophoretic injection of dilute samples frequently results in large sample volumes and poor resolution of the sample components.
It would thus be desirable to provide an electrophoretic system for improved separation and resolution of sample components, particularly where the sample components are present at nanomolar concentrations or less. It would be further desirable to provide a method of adjusting separation conditions as to maximize electrophoretic separation and resolution.